João Dias
Last Encounter on the Nintendo Switch is a twin-stick shooter with a roguelike structure that puts the player exploring a hostile galaxy and if its ideas regarding upgrades and development, as well as a more careful approach to combat, are positive, the end result is a rather frustrating experience where it can become too cumbersome to pursue with upgrading the ship and where a simple mistake will throw the player all the way back.
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Touhou Kobuto V: Burst Battle could have reached something with its interesting idea of playing a story with different characters and their own perspectives but the combats quickly become repetitive and underperforming. While the Arcade and Score Attack modes are challenging, the audiovisual component seriously needs a brush up and the game just doesn't perform the way it should.
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Ambition of the Slimes could have been a more fun, dynamic and overall compelling strategy RPG were it not for its flaws and ill-conceived organization, which will result in very frustrating and repetitive combats and long moments of plain annoyance at how the game puts the player in combat with a very unforgiving system and difficult interaction.
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Bringing Langrisser out of Japan after 25 years is worthy of praise but unfortunately it's the only thing worth praising about Langrisser Re: Incarnation Tensei. Its gameplay mechanics force the player to follow a pre-set order to move the characters, rather than allowing for a more dynamic choice, its visual environment needs a near-complete overhaul and its chapters are simply not motivating to move forward.
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Primal Light scores points when it comes to the visual ambiance and art style portraying a horrific, evil world. Its level design is less thrilling, though, and combined with enemies that get tiresome too quickly, the levels end up feeling like a burden, with the bosses providing a welcome highlight. Its punishing difficulty will put off less experienced players, though.
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GODS Remastered is expected to deliver something as close to the original GODS as possible and it certainly succeeds at that. Where GODS Remastered could have done a better job is when it comes to its gameplay mechanics, which are still mostly stuck in the original game's days, as the experience feels heavy and cumbersome compared to more recent games, despite the marvellous work done on its visual environment.
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Super Ping Pong Trick Shot is not the most ambitious game around. That said, in its naked simplicity and disregard for the technical capacities of the Nintendo Switch, the game's puzzles are well designed and can get the player somewhat addicted into fulfilling its challenges. Audiovisual presentation and half of its control schemes aside, this can be a fun experience for a while.
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Ninja Shodown was made for quick and intense experiences. Slaughtering successive waves of enemies is fun but Ninja Shodown needs to improve on its combo system (or near lack thereof) and on movement detection to make it less frustrating, while its multiplayer mode deserves more appraise.
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Alchemic Dungeons brings crafting to a roguelike game and it works at keeping the player's attention thanks to its variety of possibilities. It doesn't, alas, stand out in the same way when it comes to its dungeons, which end up being the game's weakest link due to their excessive size and unbalanced difficulty curve.
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Red Game Without a Great Name and Green Game: TimeSwapper present concepts which are welcome in the gameplay mechanics found in titles of the Nintendo Switch catalogue. This does not mean they are free from flaws, as their repetitiveness and frustration quickly show, aggravated by a less-than-helpful control system which does not contribute to a more enjoyable experience and ends up creating unnecessary difficulties.
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Ninja Usagimaru: The Mysterious Karakuri Castle sets up high expectations with its rich audiovisual environment and apparent enormous amount of content to explore, but its extremely demanding difficulty curve and poorly executed controls will send many players in a path of frustration that will not leave them longing for the puzzles where the eponymous ninja rescues the villagers.
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FullBlast joins the growing wave of 2D shoot'em ups that's building up the Nintendo Switch catalogue but other than its fluid gameplay, it doesn't really provide for an intense, gratifying experience in any other way. Repetitive patterns, a dull audiovisual component and an overall feeling of doing the same thing over and over again put FullBlast in the passable efforts category.
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Red Game Without a Great Name and Green Game: TimeSwapper present concepts which are welcome in the gameplay mechanics found in titles of the Nintendo Switch catalogue. This does not mean they are free from flaws, as their repetitiveness and frustration quickly show, aggravated by a less-than-helpful control system which does not contribute to a more enjoyable experience and ends up creating unnecessary difficulties.
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Transcripted features an interesting concept that puts it in a unique position within the Nintendo Switch catalogue. Its merger of shoot'em up with a puzzle game is a successful one, even if it can start getting repetitive after a while and its difficulty can feel a bit too much but this doesn't diminish its assets, not to mention that those looking for some plot will also find something to follow here.
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Lichtspeer: Double Speer Edition is a funny and interesting proposal that relies on an old school gameplay based on memorizing patterns and on trial and error...and this is where its qualities start receding, as Lichtspeer exaggerates on the endless number of deaths and repetition to the point of putting players off.
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Rocket Fist may be an accessible game but by no means does that make it a walk in the park. Destroying enemy robots using a rocket-propelled sphere whose physics recall that of a billiard ball, Rocket Fist quickly reaches frantic levels of activity, whether on solo or multiplayer. It gets everything right and would get it even more if it lasted longer and had online multiplayer.
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Shift DX is a well-thought two-dimensional puzzle game that will have players scratching their heads around 180º rotations, gravity inversions and the best way to reach the exit door while avoiding death by spikes. This is a game that could benefit enormously from a multiplayer mode and a proper online component, as it feels a bit empty outside its fun and challenging main mode.
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Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star is enormous and frantic. It also goes overboard at one moment too many, as it becomes a struggle to keep up with the plot, the characters and the combats. Bringing it down a notch or two would make it more balanced. As it is, perhaps only the most hardcore of purists will truly enjoy it.
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As far as action RPGs go, Gurumin 3D: A Monstrous Adventure is simple and with an accessible plot. It takes a while to become involving but it does have a pretty decent lifespan, even if it can't help becoming repetitive at some moments, as well as frustrating from its camera and imprecise controls. Nevertheless, it still has its value and should not be overlooked by RPG fans.
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Xenoraid is a shoot'em up that does not fully abide by the classical rules of its counterparts. If the shooting action works fine, the game's structure feels like it's too constricting on the player with its insistence on purchasing every element for the ships, which creates unnecessary burdens on the players.
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